Don’t claim to be a social media expert? We want to talk to you.

Posted on November 6, 2009 by Sean Wolverton — Leave a Comment

Image by luc legay via Flickr

Recently I’ve been traveling for business a whole lot, while busy working on a business development pipeline that’s healthier than we’ve ever seen, and at the same time building budgets and business plans for next year.  So I’ve been guilty of the blogger’s sin: neglecting my blog.  Still, it was a jolt to hear a job candidate say, in her diplomatic way, “You haven’t been updating your blog lately, have you?”

It’s gratifying that many candidates nowadays, especially those that are ambitious and smart, routinely check out our blogs and twitter feeds before they come in for an interview.  It’s partly the reputation that we’ve gained, partly our stated intention to make digital an integral part of our offering rather than a separate function.  I personally have said on Twitter that if you are social media savvy my estimation of you instantly goes up a notch. 

However, we do need to distinguish between people that think like social media users versus marketers.  Just because you have a blog, a Facebook account and tweet regularly, doesn’t automatically make you a social media savvy marketer.  It just means you spend a lot of time in front of your PC.  It’s how you can creatively blend all the communication tools at your disposal, including “traditional” PR, that matters.

I have a few questions that I like to ask, rather than the bog standard “Do you use Facebook, MySpace or Twitter?”

• What in your mind makes a social media expert? Would you consider yourself one? Why?
• Describe 1-2 recent marketing campaigns conducted mainly online that you like.
• How would you integrate digital marketing ideas with offline PR and advertising programs?
• Are you familiar with [recent high profile social media marketing faux pas by well known brand]? How would you remedy the situation? What mistakes did they make originally?
• If you were to design a creative, out-of-the box social media campaign to market yourself as a job candidate, what would it look like?

Rather than just having accounts at all the right sites, it’s the ability to think that matters the most. 

The first question is particularly illuminating; the ones who claim not to know enough about social media usually turn out to be the best digital marketing thinkers. A benefit of being in constant learning mode, perhaps.